From Lying at the Gate to Leaping in the Temple — Don Wilkerson

From Lying at the Gate to Leaping in the Temple

This third chapter. My message tonight is entitled from lying at the gate to leaping in the temple from lying at the gate. To leaping in the temple and some of you that are here right now, you're you're you're lying at the gate.

But before this meeting is over you're going to be wanting to leap in the temple. Praise the lord and we have a lot of you that like that. Amen. We've seen that to sunny night my goodness. Nobody wanted to leave nobody wanted to leave the service so the presence of the lord was so powerful and so real and We there were people leaping in the temple and those that weren't leaping outwardly were leaping inwardly and tonight god Uh can do that again for us.

Praise the lord. Acts chapter three. Now peter and john went up together into the temple at the hour of prayer being the ninth hour. And there they ministered to a certain lame man. He was lame from his mother's womb was carried.

Whom they laid daily at the gate of the temple. Which is called beautiful to ask alms of them that entered into the temple. Now, let me just stop there and digress for a moment and point out to you that Acts chapter three follows acts chapter two Is a very profound statement when I explain to you what I mean.

Pentecost and the Church’s Individual Ministry

Now acts chapter two is a famous chapter. That's where the holy spirit was outpoured on the day of pentecost. And peter and the other disciples stood up empowered by the holy spirit priest of message.

And three thousand plus souls were saved and the new testament church was born now. You put that in proportion. Today, it would be like thirty thousand probably here in new york getting saved. It would take probably most theaters in times square to accommodate the crowd and so there was this Great outpouring and this great burst of glorious in the second chapter of acts.

And yet here these two preachers who are going about their daily routine Are not only able to be instruments To see the masses brought to the lord, but they're able also to individualize their anointing And individualize the power of the holy spirit and focus in on one individual.

And that's what this story is about and that's who I want to talk about tonight. Verse and verse three. This layman at the gate beautiful who seeing peter and john about to go into the temple asking alms.

And peter fastening his eyes upon him with john said look on us. And he the beggar the crippled men gave heed unto them expecting to receive something of them. Then peter said. This verse six is if you had to pick out famous verses in the bible.

You'd almost have to list this one that I love. Then peter said silver and gold have I none. But such as I thee In the name of eyes up and walk. And he took him by the right hand. And immediately his feet and ankle bones received strength.

And he leaping up stood And walked and praising god in Verse nine says. And all the people saw him walking and praising god. I'm sure he interrupted a very dull prayer meeting. They had never seen anything like this a man to To praise the lord they at first they didn't know what was going on.

They were shocked by the fact that he was praising god and then when they saw who it was The mighty miracle that took place and so this is a story of a man who went from lying at the gate To leaping in the temple shall we bow in a word of prayer our father.

Spiritual Defeat Beneath an Outwardly Healthy Appearance

We thank you for that power. We thank you for that authority in the name of jesus. That enables us to say today to those who are spiritually crippled rise and be healed In the name of jesus rise up and walk able to walk and praise you and walk in righteousness.

Lord tonight reach out and let this service set and the direction for the rest of this week. In every service lord, we thank you for those already. It's been evidence that you have Selected you have divinely brought them to this place tonight.

You have divinely brought them and lord you have all written your work in their hearts. But lord search out everyone every individual In this place tonight and bring them to that place in you. That you want them to be.

Now you'll find yourself. You'll find yourself in this story tonight. This is a before and after picture. Before. Before this crippled man encountered these two preachers. Who said to them in the name of jesus christ?

Rise up before the man was a cripple and after he became a jesus person a healed person. But more importantly a jesus person. Before he was healed he was a beggar after he becomes a worshiper. Now this crippled man symbolizes all of us.

In a spiritual sense. Everybody is a cripple in reality. We are two persons in one. There is the outside person and then there is the inside person. We are body and we are spirit. There is a natural man and there is a spiritual body and there's one person but two parts of us.

One of these two persons can be doing good and the other bad. One can be alive and the other dead. These can be very normal. We can be alive and healthy but our spirit be dead. Older person may be standing.

But the inner person can be lying down in defeat like this crippled beggar at the gate beautiful. I administered his service one time and after it a lady came to me. Very refined very well dressed. I could tell just by her manner and by her speech that she was a woman of refinement.

And she began to talk to me about another woman. And presented the situation and said what would you think about this and what would you do? And what would your answer be? And uh to this kind of situation and as she was talking about this other woman I discerned that she was talking about herself.

She couldn't bring herself to tell me that it was her and as I looked at her and all of her Refinement the spirit of the lord spoke to me and said she's standing up on the outside. But she's lying down on the inside.

I went to preach at a church one time in a very nice church, very nice suburban area. And the lord laid an evangelistic message upon my heart and and I would as I went there and I sat on the platform I began to second-guess myself or question whether I had the right message or not.

Because I looked out onto the congregation of a lot of nice looking people. They stood for prayer. They stood with their hymnals and they were worshiping the lord. And I I said to the lord lord Do I have the right message you want me to preach tonight to sinners look at all these nice looking people.

And the spirit of god spoke to me and said don't be fooled by the face. There's death on the inside. Now the kind of crippled condition that I want to address myself tonight primarily is That which is a spiritual that which is of moral.

The Inner Condition Revealed Through Everyday Relationships

And when I talk about one standing up on the outside but lying down on the inside, let me Let me give you a picture. A description of what i'm talking about by telling you a little story of a mother had her little son at church.

And he was very rambunctious and he had a lot of energy and he just wouldn't stay still and he kept running around. My mother kept pulling him in and trying to get him to sit down. I remember when I was a kid when I was like that.

My mother used to have three names for me. She would say donald and to get my attention and then if if I didn't pay attention to her she would say donald wesley. That's my middle name. And I you know, I knew that I was a little more danger.

And if she didn't if I didn't respond then she would say donald wesley wilkerson. I said Whatever and I knew there were no more names and there were no more talking after that. I better listen. And I guess this little Boy had ran.

You know out of names and his mother's patience. And so she grabbed him. And she sat him down on the seat, you know like that and she said I said sit down looked up at her. With defiance in his eyes and he says yeah, but i'm standing up on the inside.

If you can identify with this little boy's feeding, but it's only in the reverse. Because in your situation you may be standing up on the outside. Everything may seem to be all right side. You're lying down.

Something isn't right something is wrong tonight when your body gets up in the morning. Does your spirit get up with you you go to school you go to work or you go through the motions of being you know.

That you're either in defeat or you're on the road to defeat. You're not fooling some of you that physically you live next to each other. And and if anybody would observe your marriage if anybody even would see you coming into this church tonight.

You could say everything is fine. And yet one of you or the other knows that there's something that's not right. One of you something is hurting. One of you may be lying down on the inside. Or say it may be the relationship of parents between children.

It may appear that's an all a loving family, but there's something that's not right there has something died in your relationship. To your in your marriage or down tonight. Then if so, you're like this crippled man at the gate beautiful.

He was crippled physically, but you can be crippled inwardly. And I want to say tonight on the authority of god's word that we're here to speak to that condition we're here. Letting the life of god breathe through us through his word and through his anointing to speak to that condition in you.

And I want to say to you that person that inner being that lies down dead tonight. Can be resurrected hallelujah speak to you about spiritual death and decay inside of you. What happened to this crippled man can happen to you you can rise up spiritually.

And be healed and to be saved and be delivered and set free. Oh the description here. He leaping up stood and walked and entered with them into the temple walking and leaping and praising god. So let me take you through this story because it may be an encouragement for every cripple who is here tonight now first of all.

Sin, Birth, and the Need for New Birth

Look at verse two with me. How was it that this man came by this condition? It says in a certain man who had been lame from his mother's wound. Now listen to me the most important Question you will ever ask in your life Is how did it happen that I am where I am?

How did I become a cripple? If you don't ask you'll never get an answer. And you may go through life never asking the right question about your human condition. So that you'll never find an answer if you don't ask.

This man was crippled from birth he was born that way. He inherited the condition. There was nobody to blame. There was nothing he or anybody else could do that could change his situation. He needed a miracle.

Now if your problem tonight and I say your problem is I don't I shouldn't say if. But your problem is caused by spiritual a spiritual and moral condition of sin. That all of us are born with therefore what you need to realize is that it is a spiritual problem.

It is only find your answer in god and not in man. That's why I like to say If you're here and you don't know what to say about this church. You've come to the right place at the right time because we've got the right message for you.

You'll not find it anywhere else In the time square area unless there's another church that's meeting tonight somewhere preaching the gospel. But if this man was crippled Because he ate something wrong Then all he had to do was to eat right and he might be right.

But if your problem goes back to your birth. The only solution my friend is to have a new birth. David the psalmist said in sin. Did my mother conceive again? The bible says that we are born and shapen In iniquity and this man was lame from his mother's wound and my friends.

Your problem goes back to the wound. It goes back to the birth. Therefore the only solution is that god goes back To your birth as well and gives you a new birth. Hallelujah. I heard the story Which i've sort of Changed it a little bit.

But the story is of a drug addict who needed help. He wanted to get free from his drugs. He was Seeking an answer, but he really is typical of anybody who has a has a problem and situation That needs to be changed, but we'll call this a drug addict and he was looking for answers and so He was told by the politician That the reason you there's no cure.

The reason you're in your situation is that you have voted wrong. Therefore you need to vote again. If you vote again, you put the right party in office and you know what every politician runs on Has to run partly on a drug platform.

He's got to promise some way somehow what he's going to do about the drug problem. And so this Drug addict met a politician and he said your problem is you need to vote again. He went to the psychologist and the psychologist said your problem is that you need to think again.

He went to the psychiatrist and the psychiatrist said well, you just need to try again. He went to the educator and the educator said you need to learn again. He went to the church and the church said you need to join again.

But finally, he met somebody witnessing in Times Square and they said, you can be born again. You see, when your problem goes back to your birth, Jesus, therefore, is your only hope and your only solution.

God Works From the Inside Out

Now, the secular approach to man's need is to help only the outer man's problem. But you see, God gets to the root of the problem, the root of our birth, the poison that is within us. And my friend, this is the most simple, basic truth that anybody could teach.

And yet with all of man's learning, he does not know that he has a birth problem, a sin problem. And that's why we in the church of Jesus Christ are equipped to be able to minister, to minister to them.

I remember, we had a CBS reporter came to visit me one time over Teen Challenge. He wanted to find out what, you know, what goes on. And he'd heard of this religious approach to curing drug addicts. And I'll never forget, he came in and he set up his recorder and got it all set, you know, and so forth.

And he got his mic and he put it in front of me. He smiled and he said, now, Reverend, he said, tell me this, how do you cure the drug addicts here at Teen Challenge? And I said, we pray for them. And he was speechless.

He didn't, he looked at me as if to say, man, you gotta be kidding. You gotta be kidding. Isn't there anything more than that? And you know, he asked me a few more questions and I never saw a man leave my office so quickly.

He wrapped up his tape recording, went out on his way because I said, we pray for them. He didn't even give me a chance to explain. You see, society works, tries to work from the outside in and says, look, give a man a better job, give him a better education, give him a better environment.

But Jesus worked from the inside out, hallelujah. We don't neglect the outer man. We want to educate people and God does all of those things, but you got to start from where the problem is. This man was lame from his mother's womb.

Now, if you need to see man's, if you want to see man's foolish attempt and feeble attempt to solve the human condition, just go visit Barnes and Noble or B. Dalton and Son. I was in Atlanta, Georgia one time and went into a beautiful new mall and they just opened a brand spanking new bookstore.

And when I went walking into, I was going to browse. And as I went walking in, it was just like the spirit of God stopped me in the middle, right at the door and said, look around, look around and just look around and see from A to Z.

You can begin at astrology and you can end up with Zen and everything in between is all of the books, all of man's feeble attempt to try to explain man's human condition. And yet with it all, we still can't get a person from the cradle to the grave with peace of mind.

The Sinful Condition Behind Visible Habits

Now going back to the crippled man, why was he in the condition? A certain man lame from his mother's womb. And this is the same reason that we're lame. Something is wrong with our birth. You see the thing that we say about drug addicts, and again, I don't want to just use that as an example, but it'll prove my point.

You see a drug addict is not a sinner because he's an addict. No, he's an addict because first of all, he's a sinner. And when you deal with a cause of your crippled condition, then the manifestation of it, be it drugs or whatever it is, will go.

I talked to you earlier about the refined woman who came to me one time. Well, I was in another meeting and a very refined man came to me. And I had, in this particular meeting, I had shown a film about our work with the drug addicts and how the Lord cures them.

And the meeting had closed and I was rewinding the film. And this man came up to me and he commended me. He said, Reverend, he said, I commend you for the good work that you're doing. And then he began, he sort of enjoyed the film for this reason is that he saw these drug addicts and their plight.

He began to compare himself with them. And he began to tell me about how good of a man that he was and all the good things that he was doing. And I discerned that the man did not know the Lord. And I finally, I listened to him very patiently for a while.

And finally, I couldn't take it anymore. And I said to him, sir, now, wait a minute. I said, you tell me you're a good man. In essence, that's what you said to me, you're a good man, but you must be careful because you may be good for nothing.

And when I said it, I realized what I had said. I said, I wasn't trying to be insensitive, but when I said it, I got his attention anyhow. And I said, the Bible says that our goodness is as filthy rags.

I went on to explain that truth to him. And I thought after I left, you know, when some of the young men who've come here to this altar and we refer, they come right off the streets. They've been living on the streets and we refer them to Teen Challenge.

And, you know, we have a blessing room there. We used to have, I don't know if Tom, we still have the blessing room to get some new clothes. And, you know, some of the fellows that come in, we have to take their clothes and literally burn it.

I mean, it's got the smell of the streets on it. And the only thing you can, you can't even wash it. You just have to burn it. And I was thinking about that man. What I would like to have done to illustrate to him what God thinks about his heart was to save some of those clothes and put it on him.

As the Bible says, our righteousness is as filthy rags. Here was a man in all of his goodness. And so it doesn't matter, my friend, whether your sin be drug addiction or whether you be living in a penthouse, as we said, we all have to come by the same route.

We all have to recognize our human sinful condition. And that only as we come to Christ, are we able to be changed from that condition. As a result of him being crippled, it says, whom they laid daily.

Look at it again in verse two. Whom they laid at the gate of the temple, which is called beautiful. Perhaps it was other beggars who were able to walk. Perhaps it was friends. I don't know, but somebody every day came and took that man, laid him there in front of that gate.

Sin as Bondage and False Freedom

Now, listen to me. If your life is crippled, if you're controlled by a sinful condition, a sinful habit, then you are being carried by that thing through life. You see, eventually sin ends up controlling you.

It lays you down. It lays you out just like that man. If you're under the control of a sinful habit or lifestyle, then that habit has become your crutch or worse, it has become your stretcher. And like that crippled man, this crippled man who was carried by friends every day to beg for money, your habits can become life's stretcher so that you can not function apart from that sinful habit.

And if that's you, my friend, then you're hooked, you're bound. You see, the crippled man was not free. He was not independent. He was dependent. He could not walk freely. He had to be carried. And let me ask you tonight, are you being carried through life by a sinful habit or something evil that is inside you that drives you?

It dictates every waking moment. It dictates your lifestyle. It dictates everything that you do. Everything revolves around that thing. Proverbs 5 .22 says, his own iniquity shall take the wicked himself and he shall be holden with the cords of his sins.

And by the way, I'm not just referring to drugs or alcohol. I know people who are eaten up by bitterness, by jealousy, by envy, by hate, by anger. They're literally controlled by it. It's as if every day they are laid down on a stretcher of bitterness.

They're never free from it. And therefore, they are emotional cripples and worse, they're spiritual cripples. But then I see young people also who are crippled by habits. But if you talk to them, they think that they're doing their own thing.

They think they're doing what they wanna do. They may even say, look, I wanna do my own thing. And so they join, they go out, they join a peer group. And then what happens? Pretty soon they do what all their friends do.

They look alike, they dress alike, they talk alike, they think alike, they do alike, and they call it freedom. And this so-called freedom, and if there's any young person, any young adult, you're listening to me now, and you think you're free.

And some of you may have been raised in the church. You may have known the Lord at one time and you shugged it all off. You just walked away from it and said, I'm gonna be my own person. But I wanna tell you, that so-called freedom is really bondage.

Because when you give yourself over to the habits and behavior of the world, you become crippled by that behavior. And it's like lying down in a stretcher. Proverbs 1 .32 says, for the turning aside of the wicked shall slay them.

Let me tell you something. If you don't already know it, or if nobody's ever told you before, nobody but nobody does his own thing. Not me, not you, not anybody. Everybody is doing somebody else's thing.

It's just a question of who's in charge of real life. Everybody is carried to the gate of life by someone or something until you learn what freedom is all about. And I wanna tell you, the worst kind of lifestyle is the kind where the wardrobe is a straight jacket.

I'm talking about the straight jacket of drugs. Or alcohol, or pornography, or lust, or gambling. Or as I mentioned the other thing, hate, anger, jealousy. And in this straight jacket, you're a crippled even worse than a cripple because you're not free to be what God has made you to be.

The Gate of Temporary Help and the Door of Hope

Now, where did this man go to find help? It says, whom they laid daily at the gate of the temple which is called Beautiful. And there when Peter and John came along, asked some alms. You see, everybody is looking for a gate called Beautiful.

Everybody is looking for an opportunity, an open door to a new way of life. But you see, this man was not even thinking about the possibility of getting through the door or the possibility of walking.

He thought his answer could be found in the help and resources of others. And what he got was temporary help. Help to keep him alive, but not to be free. And every day he kept coming back to the same place to ask for the same thing.

And in so doing, he remained a cripple. Now, let me ask you this. Is this the story of your life? Are you an alive beggar? Or do you want to become a whole person and a free person? And whether you're the beggar or you're the alms giver, you need to know that neither they nor you can save the crippled man.

And don't fool yourself by thinking that you can buy happiness or healing of your condition. Alms will not do it. Just ask the government. Just ask the government. The prison system in America. You know, I remember when I first came to this city and I was issued a pass to go into prisons to do some prison work.

And when I got the pass, I didn't know what they called the prison system. I just thought it was jail or prison or whatever. And when they issued it to me, it said New York City Department of Correction.

And for some reason, it just struck me funny and I laughed. I said, Department of Correction, they've got their nerve. And you know, my friend, the problem we have in our society is not gonna buy the relief.

The Department of Correction is not gonna do it. The only Department of Correction I know is the Father, Son, and the Holy Ghost. Isaiah 55 and two says, why do you spend money for that which is not bread?

And your labor for that which doesn't, to beg or to buy it. Not so important as to how or to why a person is lying at the gate. We've told you here, if you'll notice, when we have older calls here, we like to spend time praying with people and we wanna have more time for counseling.

We like to try to find out who we're praying for and why we're praying. But the question is not so important as to how or why a person is lying at the gate. The question is who can get him on his feet.

And you see, first of all, he put himself in a place, in a position where help could be found. I like the fact, and I was struck as I read this today, that this man laid daily. I mean, he was consistent.

God, give us the same kind of commitment that this man had. They laid him daily at the Cape Beautiful. Daily, he was out there looking for an answer. And he put himself in a place, he sat down at the door of the church, the gate going into the temple.

And my friend, if you're gonna be helped tonight, if your life is gonna be rescued or changed or healed, then you've gotta put yourself in a position where God can do it. The crippled man could have gotten bitter, he could have given up, he could have starved to death in his own self-pity.

But daily, he sat down at the entrance of the temple. And he got somebody, evidently he got somebody to place him where there was a door of hope. There was a gate to life, there was an entrance to God.

He didn't know how to get into the church, but he at least got himself at the right place. He put himself in the right environment. Asked for help. Oh, he asked for the wrong thing, but at least he asked.

Scripture says, seek and you shall find. Ask and it shall be given you. Knock and it shall be opened to you. And let me tell you, my friend, if you want help, if you want out of your situation, if you want help, then the help will find you.

Do you hear what I said? The help will find you. If you'll put yourself in the right position, the Bible says the poor man cried and the Lord delivered him out of his distresses. With me to Proverbs chapter one.

Wisdom Crying in the Streets

I've been so blessed by this and you that are going out on the streets, I want you to get blessed by this. Psalms chapter one, Proverbs chapter one. The groups going out, every time the groups go out, I think about this verse.

Verse 20, it says, wisdom crieth on the street. Wisdom crieth without. She uttereth her voice in the streets. Hallelujah. She crieth in the chief places of the concourse and the openings of the gates in the city.

She uttereth her words in the streets where the multitudes try to satisfy the emptiness of their hearts. There is wisdom. There is the concourse. To me, that represents maybe our colleges and our universities where empty minds go to be filled.

And yet God has a witness there. God has a word there. It says at the opening of the gates of people who are looking for places of economic opportunity or other opportunities where they could go to find happiness.

And all of these places, my friend, I want you to know that wisdom is crying out and shouting out, hallelujah. God has his witness, his people everywhere calling out. And tonight it's right here in Times Square for some of you that came here.

The service was for ordained for you. Going back to the story in Acts chapter three, notice what happened to this man. Why he went from lying at the gate to leaping in the temple. Look at it again. And Peter fastening his eyes upon him said, look on us.

And he gave heed unto them, expecting to receive something of them. And the reason that Peter and John said, look on us is because as soon as they stopped, he knew or thought he was gonna get something.

And so he had his hand raised out here while he was trying to get with the other hand, he was trying to get the other passers by. And so he wasn't even looking at Peter and John. So, you know, he said, look on us.

He gave heed unto them, expecting to receive something of them. Then Peter said, silver and gold have I none. Now I used to always think that this was because, you know, they were poor preachers, but you know, they probably were poor, but that's not why they said that.

You see the gate beautiful. And look at the, think of the contrast of this man's situation. Daily he had been there. We don't know how old he was. I'm sure he was perhaps more than a teenager whom they laid daily at where they met the living God.

And here was this man, not only of the temple, but of the presence of the Lord. And he's in this terrible crippled condition, but also the gate beautiful was a beautiful gate. We're told that it was a beautiful bronze, a beautiful laid over with gold and silver.

And evidently Peter and John noticed the contrast and they looked at this gate that was some 40 cubits in height. And that's what caused Peter and John to say, silver and gold have we none. All of the gold that's in this gate cannot meet this man's need.

We don't have silver and gold, but we have something else. And when they said what they said, you recall what Jesus was on earth. He said to his disciples, he said after he had healed many people and worked many miracles, he turned to his disciples and he said, greater works than these shall you do in my name.

And this is the very first recording. This is the very first time that they now are exercising that promise and that authority that was given to them. This is the first time they're exercising their faith.

Faith in Jesus Christ Brings the Crippled to His Feet

And here this contrasting scene of this man lying at the gate. And so they said, silver and gold have we none, but such as I have give I thee in the name of Jesus Christ rise up. And my friend, that's the same word for you tonight.

This can do for you what he did for that cripple man. Jesus can put you on your feet, hallelujah. So that you can walk and leap and praise God can get you in the gate, into the gate of salvation. You see no gates beautiful unless it's an entrance into something that will change your life.

And you know what some people do, how some people are living. You know what a movie set is. They have a Western town. And you look at this movie set and you see a tavern, you see a hotel, you see a jail, you see this and you see that.

And you know, if you were there, actually went there and you went through it, you know that all it would be, would be a sign, a facade. That's it's actually called a facade. All it is, is a front. There's nothing behind it.

You go and it's empty. And I think of people all their life. And some of you have been doing that all of your life. You've seen promises, you've seen signs and hung out there and said, step right in here.

Here's a gate beautiful. Here's something that would change your life. Here's something that will meet your need. And you go through and you find out that it's only a facade. But Jesus can bring you into the temple and he can bring you into the presence of God.

A Final Appeal to Enter the Presence of God

I wanna tell you a story in closing. I was going downtown Brooklyn one July, day in July, going to get a haircut. And I heard some sound across the street in front of Abraham and Strauss, A and S. And I was drawn by it because it sounded like a street meeting or somebody preaching.